Greg Blake and David Morris at World of Bluegrass 2025 – photo © Joey Sue King

One of my favorite parts of the annual visit to IBMA’s World of Bluegrass is running across old friends that you only see once a year.

Even better is when you run across folks you haven’t seen in years. That was the case last week in Chattanooga, on multiple occasions.

My first surprise of the week came when I saw Blake Williams, a former member of the Blue Grass Boys, and his wife, publicist and manager Kimberly Williams. After a long absence, Kimberly was flying the flag for her clients, including fiddler Michael Cleveland. Her presence was a good luck charm, as Cleveland and Jason Carter took home three IBMA awards, including song of the year, collaborative recording, and album of the year.

Next, I caught up with Paul Williams, a 90-year-old Hall of Famer, sitting with Jimmy Martin’s old Martin guitar outside the Exhibit Hall. But the trip was more than mere nostalgia. Williams still has the same golden voice he exhibited in Martin’s band. And he still has the desire to be part of the action. So there he was late in the week, appearing at a news conference announcing he signed a publishing deal to write for Tall Oaks Music.

His humor remains intact, too. As we parted, I said it was good to see him. With a broad smile and a sparkle in his eyes, he said, “It’s better to be seen than viewed.”

The final reunion moment came when Paul and Kelsi Harrigill, late of Flatt Lonesome, showed up in the Exhibit Hall to play a radio show. The last time they were at IBMA, about six years ago, they carried their four-week-old baby Carter in a tiny basket. This time, Carter joined his parents for a song, then put on a little show of his own. First, he played an original song, then a cover, complete with a G-run. Then he took a deep bow and announced he would sign autographs.

There’s no Flatt Lonesome reunion in the works, but Kelsi and Paul intend to be back on stage somewhere down the line. Don’t be surprised if Carter joins them.

Other items from my notebook:

Sweet Harmonies. You never have to go far to find harmonies at World of Bluegrass, but those in place at the proverbial right time heard two stunning examples. The first came during an Awards Show segment featuring a reunion of the Bluegrass Cardinals after their Hall of Fame induction. The second was during an event celebrating Williams’ songwriting deal. Male vocalist of the year Greg Blake started singing, and when the first chorus rolled around, Doyle Lawson and Williams exchanged a look and jumped in above and below Blake. There was an audible gasp from the audience, then cheers, at the sheer beauty of the moment.

Double Vision. Turnberry Records peppered the Convention Center hallways with larger-than-life headshots of their artists. It wasn’t unusual to see one of the artists posing with their likeness and a fan or two, but it was nonetheless a bit surreal.

Hot Time in the Old Town. After a long week of late nights, guests at the Marriott had a rude awakening Saturday morning when the in-house fire alarm blared and an evacuation was ordered. Two fire trucks quickly arrived and first responders rushed toward potential danger. It didn’t take long to determine there was no fire, just someone who illegally lit up a cigarette in their room.

As displaced and displeased guests waited for elevators to take them back to their rooms, most grumbled about the stupidity of one of their own. But one hotel guest came up with a brilliant plan to get even: Gather every banjo player outside the offender’s room and let ’em rip.

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Steve Martin, who co-hosted IBMA’s Awards Show on Thursday night, tested positive for COVID the next day, and many others who attended the event in Chattanooga are ill.

The popular comedian, who is 80, canceled two shows in Virginia over the weekend with sidekick Marty Short. “Sadly, I have come down with COVID,” he announced. “I can’t possibly do the show that you deserve. So Marty and I must cancel tonight and tomorrow. But we will return under better circumstances.”

In addition to co-hosting the awards announcement, known as “the biggest night in bluegrass,” Martin was one of hundreds of guests who attended an invitation-only pre-show party. As might be expected, the international celebrity was constantly surrounded by attendees crowded around pop-up bars and tables of appetizers.

By Monday, after IBMA’s inaugural week in Chatanooga ended, Facebook and other social media platforms were seeded with reports of others who either tested positive or announced they were ill. And on SiriusXM’s Bluegrass Junction, Ned Luberecki announced that he was filling in for host Joey Black, saying Black wasn’t feeling well when he left the IBMA event on Friday. He also said that Jaelee Roberts, who won the Gospel Recording of the Year trophy, was also under the weather. When Roberts accepted the award, she was flanked at the podium by Martin and songwriter Kelsi Harrigill.

It wasn’t immediately known if either Roberts or Black actually had COVID. But others, including artist Frank Solivan, self-reported testing positive since leaving Chattanooga. Thankfully, most reported only mild symptoms.

Here’s hoping everyone recovers quickly.

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World of Bluegrass ’25 signage in Chattanooga – photo © Dawn Kenney

The initial grades are in, and the early reports are that IBMA’s first World of Bluegrass in Chattanooga, TN, was largely successful.

While attendance figures are not yet available, it seemed this year’s event was somewhat smaller than during previous years in Raleigh and Nashville. But those who were there – both pickers and fans – seemed to have a blast.

Indeed, two fans who live in Raleigh and drove to and from the event each day when it was held there, told me they were prepared to dislike the new venue because of the long drive and higher costs once hotel fees were included. But both ended up liking the Chattanooga event more than Raleigh, in part because more venues were in the Marriott and the connected Convention Center.

The bookers did a great job, too. Where else could you hear Del McCoury and Billy Strings, playing together and separately, during the week? Or be present for the announcement that 90-year-old Paul Williams, a true legend, was signing a publishing deal with a new unit, Tall Oaks Music, which operates under the Turnberry Records umbrella?

“I think it was an incredible job by everybody on making this transition,” said Hall of Fame record label owner Ken Irwin at Thursday’s town hall meeting.

There were, as expected, some hiccups. There were no food or beverage vendors in the Convention Center at the start of the week, for example, and fewer close-by restaurants than in Raleigh. And some of the event rooms in the facility were much too cavernous for the event.

Fot example, international performances and the highly anticipated Songwriter Showcase were held in a ballroom that seemed large enough to contain a full football field. Even with good attendance, the room dwarfed the audience, leaving the sound to disappear into the 70 percent or so of the space that wasn’t in use.

Another sound issue, more egregious, was the unprofessioinal job done at the Kids on Bluegrass Stage. These kids work as hard or harder than many professional bands to prepare for their gigs, and for the crowd not to be able to hear the fruits of their labors is inexcusable.

When one parent, Chad Simpson, asked a technician to swap out a malfunctioning microphone, the tech offered an excuse, not a solution. “It’s because it’s a bunch of kids who don’t know how to play into the microphone,” Simpson said he was told. Some of these kids are veteran stage performers. The excuse was clearly meant to deflect criticism. It just didn’t fly.

There were also some hitches with the shuttle service designed to deliver fans to and from off-campus venues.

IBMA Executive Director Ken White said he was aware of the shortcomings and that they would be addressed.

“We’ve learned a lot this year,” he said. “We’ll be better next year. “

But overall, Chattanooga seemed to be a huge hit. Turnberry Records boss Keith Barncastle said he would grade the week a 92 or 93 – “definitely an A.” That’s twice the grade he gave the final event in Raleigh last year.

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Paul Williams, the 90-year-old member of the Bluegrass Hall of Fame, has a new job.

His writing deal with the newly-created Tall Oaks Music was announced Friday in Chattanooga, just hours after his contributions as a writer and singer were celebrated in a tribute session at IBMA’s Bluegrass Live!

Tall Oaks is off to a fast start as the newest bluegrass publisher. The writing group, announced earlier this week at World of Bluegrass, also disclosed the signings of veteran songwriters Tom Botnik and Jack Shannon.

Another bluegrass legend, Tall Oaks co-leader Doyle Lawson, said when business partner Donna Ulisse suggested Williams as a marquee name for the new venture, he immediately picked up the phone and made the offer to his former bandmate. Lawson asked when he last wrote a song. “Just this morning,” Williams told him.

Williams wrote and sang a number of bluegrass and gospel songs for Jimmy Martin, his band boss and brother-in-law. Among them are Mr. Engineer, Steppin’ Stones, and Hold Watcha Got. He also played and sang in Martin’s band.

If his writing chops remain as strong as his voice, the bluegrass world is in for a treat.

But the other two writers that Tall Oaks announced aren’t just taking up spots on the roster.

Botnik has a collection of cuts and awards to his credit. Lawson recorded numerous Botnik songs, including How Do You Say Goodbye to 60 Years and It Took a Man Like That. Dailey and Vincent and numerous other artists have also cut his songs.

Shannon has had cuts with Jim Hurst, Alan Bibey and others.

All three sang original songs during Friday’s announcement.

Turnberry Records boss Keith Barncastle said label artists Johnny Williams, Greg Blake, and others will also contribute songs to the new venture, which is under the Turnberry umbrella.

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Bluegrass Cardinals on the red carpet at the IBMA Bluegrass Music Awards – photo © Roger Black

Billy Strings dominated the first World of Bluegrass in Chattanooga this week, cementing his role as the next new hope to lift bluegrass to new heights.

But during the IBMA Bluegrass Music Awards show last night, Billy was along for the ride as Jason Carter, Michael Cleveland, and a posse of women stole the show.

Strings took home the Entertainer of the Year trophy, bookending his powerful keynote address Tuesday. But Carter & Cleveland took home three major awards, and women dominated the stage, both as pickers and singers.

Carter & Cleveland had been talking about recording together for 15 years, and it was worth the wait. The recording won Album of the Year honors, and their powerhouse song, Outrun the Rain, was Song of the Year and Collaborative Recording of the Year. It was written by Terry Herd and Jimmy Yeary, and featured Jaelee Roberts and Vince Gill.

“We don’t get in a hurry, but we do get it done eventually,” Cleveland said on his third trip to the podium. 

Separately, both Carter and Cleveland are fine fiddlers, Jason with the Del McCoury Band, the Travelin’ McCourys, and now as a solo artist, Michael with Michael Cleveland and Flamekeeper. Together, the double fiddles were a force of nature. I hope to hear what they do next, and I just might if it doesn’t take another 15 years!

Women wore a path to the podium and the stage, too, starting with Alison Brown. In addition to co-hosting the marathon event with some guy named Steve Martin, she shared the Instrumental Recording of the Year trophy with Kristen Scott Benson and Gena Britt for Ralph’s Banjo Special (which she also produced), and appeared in multiple ensembles for performances that were sprinkled throughout the evening.

Benson was named banjo player of the year, one of four women to claim statues for instrumental prowess. The others were Sierra Hull, mandolin; Vickie Vaughn, bass; and Maddie Denton, fiddle. The other two picking prizes went to Trey Hensley (guitar) and Justin Moses (resophonic guitar).

In addition to singing on Outrun the Rain, Jaelee Roberts won Gospel Recording of the Year for He’s Gone, written by Kelsi Harrigill. And New Artist of the Year went to Red Camel Collective, fronted by Heather Berry Mabe.

Many of the women who won or were nominated joined Alice Gerrard for a tribute to trailblazing bandleader and songwriter Hazel Dickens, who would have turned 100 this year.

Overall, the show was one of the best in the 15 years I have attended or watched remotely. The video quality, was first rate, as was the camera work.

The only downside I noted – and it’s not limited to this year – was the length of the awards show. At more than three and half hours, it led me to think that maybe “the biggest night in bluegrass” should be rechristened “the biggest (and longest) night in bluegrass.”

With so many outstanding performances, the only timesaving move I could identify was enforcing the rule that only one person in a group of winners speaks at the podium. But I get it. As a songwriter, if I’m ever up there as part of a winning team, I’m going to say something.

The only other negative observation I have is that people who aren’t comedians shouldn’t try to be funny in their remarks, especially with a real comedian in the house. Their lines, as written, were fine. But telling a joke is usually better than reading it from a prompter.

But those were little speed bumps on the journey to an excellent night of bluegrass.

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Billy Strings Keynote address at World of Bluegrass 2025 – photo © Austin Scelzo

To hear Billy Strings tell the remarkable story of his musical story, he never left bluegrass, but bluegrass almost left him.

Strings kicked off World of Bluegrass 40, in IBMA’s first year in Chattanooga, with a keynote address that was part tale of persistence and part sermon about inclusiveness.

The young picker played the audience as well as he does his guitar, bringing them first to laughter, then to the verge of tears, and back again. It was, quite simply, the best keynote address I have heard since I started coming to World of Bluegrass in 2010 in Nashville. (And there have been some very good ones).

He learned his first bluegrass songs at his father’s knee. “He taught me G, C, and D, and he gave me a capo.” Later, like many teens, he turned to heavy metal, mostly because he “just wanted to play music with kids my age.” Even later, the Prodigal Son came home.

“I realized bluegrass is where my heart and soul are, and I decided to go back to it, and here I have stayed,” he said. “Bluegrass changed my whole world. I found my calling.”

Parts of his story weren’t easy to hear, especially when he talked unflinchingly about growing up in a household struggling with poverty and addiction.

But the hardest part for me was hearing him tell of getting excited to join a bluegrass jam after his return to the fold, only to go home near tears because he wasn’t one of “them,” and couldn’t break into the circle. And even though he’s now firmly established – some even say he’s the savior of bluegrass – there are still suggestions that he doesn’t belong, that he’s not a true bluegrasser.

Some folks don’t like his long hair or the way he dresses, while others are repulsed by the jamgrass aspects of his music, he said. He simply noted, “Even though we were into the same music, there was a great divide. To me, bluegrass is beautiful because of its diversity. We have to welcome new voices.”

Strings gave a shoutout to Junior Sisk, whom he joined for a song before the address. “He’s not afraid to have a longhair up here with him,” Strings said. “I want to try to mix up the tie dye and the camo a little bit.”

And he said he’s inspired by the thought of some kid leaving one of his shows and googling Tony Rice and Earl Scruggs. It’s all part of what he calls “preaching the gospel of bluegrass.”

To conclude, he said the state of bluegrass in 2025 is “pretty danged cool. I’m just glad to be a part of it. It is my honor and duty to wave that [bluegrass] flag just as high and as wide as I can.”

Not everyone will accept him. But they need to get over themselves. Billy Strings is the best thing to happen to bluegrass in a long time. He deserves thanks, not scorn.

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Bob Perilla – photo © Jeromie Stephens

Bob Perilla, a commanding presence in the Washington, DC, bluegrass world, died Thursday at his Maryland home. He was 71.

With or without his guitar, Perilla owned any room he entered. And with his band, Big Hillbilly Bluegrass, he helped spread the love of the genre around the world. The band, under a program sponsored by the US State Department, toured in Africa, several former Soviet republics, and elsewhere abroad. He shared updates of some of those trips with readers of Bluegrass Today.

He and his band, with a rotating cast of household-name musicians, were also regulars on the DC circuit, with weekly gigs at Fireflies, Madams Organ, and countless other venues. Over the years he shared the stage with Dick Smith, Akira Otsuka, Mike Munford, Tad Marks, Jon Glik, Tom Mindte, and others.

His guitar playing was as aggressive as his wit was acerbic. But he was also kind and gentle, softly sharing words of encouragement with those who needed to hear them.

A few years back, Perilla was seriously ill and in need of a kidney transplant. Dina Wood stepped forward as a live donor, giving her left kidney to help Perilla recover. He called her frequently ever since, often singing Pancho and Lefty to her as continued thanks for her selfless gift.

He was also seriously injured years back in an incident involving a motorcycle. He had to undergo physical therapy after checking himself out of the hospital before he was fully healed, but was soon back on stage, sharing his love of music.

Perilla was an alumnus of IBMA’s Leadership Bluegrass program.

Survivors include a daughter, Celeste, and a son, Frank. A celebration of his life is being planned. 

When Bob Perilla was in a room, no one left feeling sad. Today, there’s an empty spot in so many rooms, and much sadness. But many, many wonderful memories will remain.

R.I.P., Bob Perilla.

UPDATE 12/14: Photographer Jeromie Stephens has agreed to make available to the public a PDF copy of the book he produced in 2017 entitled The Big Book of Bob – A Bluegrass Troubadour. It contains 50 of Jeromie’s brilliant black and white photographs of Bob Perilla through the years.

Stephens had 25 copies professionally printed at the time, and donated them to Bob during a surprise party held for that purpose early in 2018. Bob gave many of them away to the guests at that party, which we covered here.

To download a copy of the book, courtesy of Jeromie Stephens, simply follow this link.

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When he was a teenager with a guitar and a high-lonesome voice, Vince Gill had the great fortune to cross paths with fiddler Byron Berline in Oklahoma.

At the same point in his life, Darin Aldridge found a mentor in Charlie Waller, and was soon invited to join the Country Gentlemen.

Years later, when Byron died after a stroke in 2021, Vince wrote A Million Memories (A Song for Byron), and performed it at his funeral, and on the Grand Ole Opry. Darin and Brooke Aldridge, listening from home, heard the song that night and got a little teary.

And now life and music have come full circle. The Aldridges have just released the song as their newest single, and with the help of Vince’s daughter, Jenny, have also put out a touching video to accompany it.

It almost didn’t happen. When Gill sent the song and several others for the Aldridges to consider last year, Darin assumed it was a mistake.

Did you mean to send it, Darin asked him. He did. Because of his commitment to the Eagles, he wasn’t going to be able to record it anytime soon.

It was a good fit. “We were looking for a song that I could sing,” he told me in Raleigh during the 2024 World of Bluegrass. Darin has a sweet, tender voice, but doesn’t get many chances to be out front. Such is life when you’re married to IMBA’s four-time female vocalist of the year.

So Darin and Brooke cut the song, with one caveat. They wanted Vince to sing on the record.

The result is chilling and powerful. I get chill bumps every time the second verse rolls around and Vince sings:

“Old friends are so hard to come by,
And it killed me to hear you were gone.”

The song was a natural fit for a video.

Enter Jenny Gill van Valkenburg. If the video she produced is a clue, look for her to have a fulfilling career. 

From the opening moments of the video, just Darin fingerpicking the guitar, to when Brooke, leafing through scrapbook of photos of Vince and Byron, joins the chorus, everything is tender and poignant without being over the top.

“I knew I wanted the video to have a sentimental feel to it,” Jenny said in a telephone interview from Nashville. “I knew how much Byron meant to my dad, and I know how much dad means to Darin.”

Because of other obligations, Vince wasn’t in town when the video was recorded at Nashville’s legendary Station Inn, but he appears in old photos from his time spent with Berline.

“I knew I wanted to shoot at the Station Inn because of its importance to bluegrass,” Jenny said. Asking owner Josh Ulbrich wasn’t exactly a cold call. He used to drive the tour bus for Jenny’s stepmom, Amy Grant, while Jenny was singing in her band. “I asked how much he would charge to use the space when it was closed during the day,” she recalled. “He said, ‘are you kidding? Just pick up the key.'”

She stumbled into video making by accident. A life in music was practically a given, as might be expected for a gifted daughter of country royalty (mom is Janis Oliver of Sweethearts of the Rodeo). But when COVID hit in 2020, and her stepmom’s band came off the road, she needed something to do.

When Jenny was in middle school, she used a family camcorder to “film my friends being silly.” So she picked up a camera again and posted some of her work on YouTube. And with a better camera – a gift from her family – she made a free music video for a friend.

“It wasn’t terrible,” she said. She was off and running.

Making this video gave her an opportunity to learn more about Berline, a legendary genre-crossing fiddler who worked with Country Gazette, The Dillards, The Flying Burrito Brothers, and even the Rolling Stones.

“This was a really precious friendship,” she said.

Among the bittersweet aspects of pulling everything together was working to incorporate old photographs of Vince and Byron. Because of a devastating fire at Byron’s fiddle shop, there weren’t many images of the two. She and director of photography Travis Flynn made the best of what they did find, especially in the scenes featuring Brooke leafing through a scrapbook at the bar.

“It was really fun to see my dad in his 20s at the start of his career,” Jenny said. “I was really, really pleased at what we accomplished with what we had,” she said.

Darin, too, loves how everything came together. “Vince’s story is kind of how I was raised in the bluegrass community,” he said. “I had so many people who encouraged me.”

This week, Darin and Brooke Aldridge will play Byron Berline’s home festival in Oklahoma. One song is guaranteed to make the set list.

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Jamming in the shadow of the Raleigh sign at World of Bluegrass ’24 – photo © Jeromie Stephens

When IBMA’s World of Bluegrass pulled out of Nashville in 2012, I spent most of the 12-hour drive home, and many of the following months, thinking that IBMA had made a mortal mistake in moving the annual event over the mountains to Raleigh.

Attendance would certainly suffer. And the organization that raised most of its annual budget from World of Bluegrass would surely fade away or become a shadow of itself.

I’m here to say that I was wrong. Very wrong.

Raleigh revitalized IBMA, and bluegrass music, in a way that no other city probably could. In Nashville, the annual bluegrass conference wasn’t even the biggest music conference in town during the month. In Raleigh, World of Bluegrass became THE signature event of the year.

The street fair brought thousands of new fans to the genre and many, many dollars to IBMA, the city, and vendors. It was a shot in the arm that even a pandemic and a couple of hurricanes couldn’t deter.

In fact, bluegrass became such a staple of the Raleigh music scene that local organizers will continue an annual festival after IBMA moves away to Chattanooga. New fans for bands and songwriters that weren’t here when the 12-year stay began. How can that be anything but beneficial.

And it helped build lasting friendships. We came to know bell captains, waiters, and parking attendants by name. One of the servers in the Rye Bar in the Marriott yesterday was hoping the rain wouldn’t prevent her from getting red carpet photos of regular customer and new Hall of Fame member Katy Daley.

Even the jamming, a staple of bluegrass gatherings everywhere, has seemed more energetic and welcoming over the years than in Nashville. On Friday afternoon, for example, there were probably 30 people gathered in an aisle of the exhibit hall, playing and singing with unabated enthusiasm. There’s always energy in bluegrass, but this was far beyond the norm. Deep in the crowd, just another picker, was Rhonda Vincent. Even if some of those folks never get to Chattanooga, they will carry that memory for years.

So the next host city has some huge boots to fill.

There will be complaints, for sure. Humans are creatures of habit, and change is always difficult. (Witness the cries of purists who say Billy Strings and others have strayed too far from the Bluegrass Gospel according to Bill Monroe, never mind that Mr. Monroe’s music was itself a huge departure from what came before).

So you’ll hear that you can’’ get there from here, that the facilities in Chattanooga won’t match what Raleigh had to offer. And on and on, like a Grateful Dead song that never seems to end. 

I won’t be joining that chorus. You do a lot for family, and World of Bluegrass is my home-away-from-home family. So I’ll hope for the best, use my extra two hours of travel time to listen to new music, anticipate the next adventure, and look to make new memories.

So thanks, Raleigh. It’s been great. I’m sorry for doubting you.

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Dudley Connell, whose driving rhythm guitar playing and powerful voice have shaped the Seldom Scene for nearly 30 years, is leaving the band at the end of year.

“It’s been a wonderful run, and I have enjoyed every minute of it,” he announced on Facebook. “I’m grateful to have had the opportunity to work with my good friends in the Scene. They are some of the finest people and greatest musicians a person could hope to play with.”

Connell, elected to the Bluegrass Hall of Fame with other members of the Johnson Mountain Boys four years ago, joined the Seldom Scene 29 years ago, on the same day that dobroist Fred Travers and bassist Ronnie Simpkins, successfully auditioned with band co-founder John Duffey. That trio, along with Lou Reid and founding member Ben Eldridge, moved the band into a new century, winning new fans along the way.

With the relentless passage of time, change is inevitable. And the Scene has seen its share. Bassist Tom Gray is the last surviving original member, although he left the band decades ago. I never saw the Duffey-led unit before the legendary showman died in 1996. But I think I know how serious fans from that era felt when Duffey was gone. I have a hard time imagining the Scene without Connell’s mountain-infused voice, and corny jokes about Travers playing a guitar adorned with the hubcap from an old Buick.

To me, the harmonies from Connell, Travers, and Reid are the best in the business. Any band looking for how it’s done could do no better than catching a Scene show, or listening through the band’s catalog.

But Connell doesn’t just perform the music, he lives it. His job as an audio archivist at the National Council for Traditional Arts paid him to listen to music – how cool is that – and exposed him to great performances that he frequently shares on social media. He is especially enamored with the vocals of the late Carter Stanley.

“It’s been a wonderful run, and I have enjoyed every minute of it,” he posted.

No word about the future of the Scene, but it seems certain the band will soldier on, as it has in one iteration or another since 1971. But this much is clear: There will be some mighty big shoes to fill behind the microphone.

Best of luck to the band, and to my friend Dudley Connell, in their next chapters. Long may they run.

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